COLUMNIST JULES HUDSON COUNTRY ESCAPE As the creation of a new bridge across the Menai Strait is announced, Jules wonders if the new structure can live up to the triumphs of engineering that went before it midst the frenzy of excitement andgrowing His creation, the Britannia Bridge, opened in harvest of British medals being gathered at 1850 and, with its tubular box section, once again Athe Olympics in Rio this August, an pioneeredthe use of a radical design andspanned announcement was made in Wales that might the Strait until it was destroyed by fire in 1970. give us something else to cheer about. Since being rebuilt to carry not just the railway but After many years of the usual political chat also the main A5, it’s still a triumph of engineering anddithering, it seems that at last there’s a andone that both Stephenson andits more recent realistic hope that a new bridge may be cast over re-inventors can be proudof. the Menai Strait, linking for a thirdtime the Isle What’s all the more remarkable about these feats of Anglesey with the mainland. is that, having survivedwell into the 21st century, It’s no secret that I have a real soft spot for this ancient andunique island,andthe bridges that currently connect it with the rest of the worldare There’ll of course be its critics but in their own right worthy of some marvel. The first, I hope its engineers can head this built by Thomas Telford, was brought about by the Act of Union 1800 with Ireland. Tra9c to off by producing something inspiring...” Holyhead, connecting Ireland to London along what we now know as the A5, increasedto such an extent they both still do what they were built for; and in JULES HUDSON was that Telfordset about not just improving the road, the case of Telford’s bridge, long before the cars born in Essex but but solving the problem of how to best cross the andlorries it now bears were even dreamtof. stayed in Wales after hazardous straits with their notorious eight-knot When the new bridge design and its proposed studying archeology at current, whilst still allowing tall sailing ships to pass location is revealed, there’ll of course be some critics, Lampeter University. through them. but I hope the bridge’s engineers will be able to He hasworked in The result, openedin 1826, was the Menai head o8 most of the disparagement by producing television since 1996 Bridge. With a groundbreaking design, its cast iron something as inventive andinspiring as the two and isa member of the chains suspended a timber roadway 100 feet above that preceded it. Countryfile team, but the turbulent waters below. At 579 feet from endto When projects like this are developed these days, isbest-known asthe end, it was then the biggest and longest suspension there’s often a tendency to go for what is cheapest, leading face of Escape bridge in the world. andvery often the least beautiful. I’m not sure that To The Country. He The Menai Bridge was a triumph of engineering either Telfordor Stephenson were as concerned moved back across anda milestone in the course of the Industrial about cost as they were about marrying gooddesign the Border in 2012, Revolution. The material andtechnical challenges with cutting-edge technology to overcome the to Herefordshire. he overcame have rightly helpedsecure for Telford seemingly impossible. The result has been two a well-deserved place in the history books. At a crossings that we’ve marvelledat for nearly 200 You can follow stroke, its opening cut the travel time from London years. Let’s hope that in 2021, when work on the Juleson Twitter to Holyheadfrom 36 to 27 hours, saving virtually latest of these structures is scheduled to start, it’s @thejuleshudson, a day in terms of early 19th century travel. something else that we andfuture generations can or visit his website at Just three years later, Robert Stephenson lit the marvel at once again. www.juleshudson.com firebox that wouldpower the world’s first viable steam locomotive, his famous Rocket, at the Rainhill Trials of 1829 in nearby Merseyside. The pace of change brought about by the Industrial Revolution has to me always been one of the most remarkable features of our more recent history. It was fitting then that his son, George Stephenson, shouldhave securedthe job of building the second bridge over the Menai Strait, with the specific task of carrying the new railway to Holyhead. www.walesandborders.com September 2016 33.